Gerard Manley Hopkins

Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

Book Excerpt: ... Fells or flanks of the voel, a veinOf the gospel proffer, a pressure, a principle, Christ's gift.5I kiss my handTo the stars, lovely-asunderStarlight, wafting him out of it; andGlow, glory in thunder; Kiss my hand to the dappled-with-damson west: Since, tho' he is under the world's splendour and wonder, His mystery must be instressed, stressed; For I greet him the days I meet him, and bless when I understand.6Not out of his blissSprings the stress feltNor first from heaven (and few know this) Swings the stroke dealt--Stroke and a stress that stars and storms deliver, That guilt is hushed by, hearts are flushed by and melt-- But it rides time like riding a river(And here the faithful waver, the faithless fable and miss),7It dates from dayOf his going in Galilee; Warm-laid grave of a womb-life grey; Manger, maiden's knee; The dense and the driven Passion, and frightful sweat